Another earthquake hit the North Eastern state again in the wee hours of this morning, a seismological official said Tuesday. The tremor measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale occurred at around 1: 09 am with the epicenter located along Myanmar region. The tremor was felt in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, a seismological official said. Today’s earthquake is the second quake to have shook the region in less than 12 hours - after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake rocked the region yesterday at 2: 23 pm. However, there was no report of loss of life and property or anyone being injured from anywhere, the officials added. “There are no immediate reports of any damage to lives and properties in Tuesday’s earthquake, although people panicked and ran out of their homes with Monday’s high intensity quake still fresh in their minds,” said a disaster management official in Guwahati. The North Eastern states lay in zone five of the seismic map, making the States highly susceptible to earthquakes.
Bhutan quake toll
The death toll from an earthquake that struck the mountain nation of Bhutan rose to 12, officials and news reports said. Rescue teams and officials fanned out to the remote eastern parts of Bhutan to look for survivors and assess the damage from Monday’s magnitude-6.1 quake. According to Bhutan’s state-run Kuensel newspaper, the death toll was 12 with five fatalities being reported from Mongar, the epicentre of the quake, about 180 kilometres east of the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu.
Eight people, including a 2-year-old boy, died in building collapses, and four workers, including three Indians, were killed after being hit by falling boulders, the report said.
The bodies of the three Indians have been handed over to Indian authorities in the northeastern state of Assam.
Fifteen people were injured in eastern areas as the strong earthquake damaged homes, offices, monasteries and dzongs, or forts, in the Buddhist nation.
Thousands of people spent the night in the open as scared locals said they felt aftershocks, which led to rumours that another powerful earthquake could hit later at night. The quake sent boulders down hillsides, blocking roads to remote, hilly regions.
There were reports of landslides in some areas, and power and telecommunications networks were disrupted in eastern districts.
The quake in Bhutan also shook India’s neighbouring north-eastern states and could be felt strongly as far as Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.